CHP leader says much will change after ‘March of Justice’

A handout picture taken and released by the Turkish Republican People's Party (CHP) press office on July 3, 2017 shows Kemal Kilicdaroglu (4thR) the leader of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party, walking with thousands of supporters on the 19th day of his 425-kilometer (265-mile) "March for justice" in Kocaeli. AFP

Main opposition Republican People’s Party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said that after the completion of a “March of Justice” he launched when a CHP deputy was arrested on June 15, many changes will be seen in Turkey.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks came during an interview with the Hürriyet daily on Tuesday, the 20th day of the march.

Kılıçdaroğlu, who argued many things must change and will change in Turkey at the end of the march, said: “The whole world has seen very well that there is no justice in Turkey. The government should ask itself: Why are these people marching in heat, cold, rain, mud and fog? They should sit down and think instead of criticizing us.”

Kılıçdaroğlu added that Turkey had turned into a “party government” after July 20 and that the government should listen to the demands of people participating in the march.

A state of emergency (OHAL) was declared in Turkey five days after a failed coup attempt on July 15, 2016 that allows the government to issue decrees that have the force of the law without the approval of Parliament.

Kılıçdaroğlu initiated the march from Ankara to İstanbul on June 15 in protest of the arrest of CHP deputy Enis Berberoğlu, who was sentenced to 25 years in prison on June 14 for leaking information for a report on National Intelligence Organization (MİT) trucks transporting weapons to jihadists in Syria.